Constrictive Pericarditis

¿End-stage¿ constrictive pericarditis has been readily confused with cirrhosis of liver in which there may be ascites, but venous pressure is normal and the neck veins are not engorged. There may be cardiac enlargement in other causes of heart failure. Etiology remains unknown in majority of cases and inflammatory process play a central role in its development. When clinical signs of right heart failure become unresponsive to increased doses of diuretics, constrictive pericarditis is more likely the underlying disease since severe, right-sided failure develops in very advanced, the end-stage of the disease.Historically, the eponym ¿ Pick¿s disease¿ was given to constrictive pericarditis with ascites and hepatomegaly and it was diagnosed as having chronic liver disease.